I live, write, and garden in the PNW with my husband of 27 years, disabled daughter, college-aged son, and my 84-year-old mother. We have paid off $250,000.00 worth of debt (if you include the interest) in the last fifteen years and as of 6/12/2020 are 100% DEBT FREE!!!!I read a lot of frugality and debt-reducing blogs and message boards and one thing that comes up time and time again is the argument over cable TV. This is not pointed at anyone here. I read blogs in lots of places. These are just my general observations. Anyway, it tends to go something like this:
Person 1: I am desperate to make ends meet. I can barely meet my minimums. I'm thinking about bankruptcy because I don't possibly have any place in my budget that I can cut. Help me!
Person 2: Oh, look, there in your budget, $180 for cable and internet. That's a good place to cut.
Person 1: But I have to have internet. I need it for work. I need it to pay my bills. I need it to do my banking.
Person 2: Okay, but you can get high-speed internet access for $70 a month. Keep the internet, but ditch your cable and you will still be saving $100 a month.
Person 1: Ditch my cable? Are you crazy? I cannot survive without my cable, my precious. I have to have my cable. I NEEEEEEEED it.
Person 2: No you don't. You need food and shelter and clothes and to pay your debts. You don't need cable. I should know. I haven't had cable in 5 years.
Person 1: Well, I have to have it. It's my only source of entertainment.
Person 2: Really? Your only source of entertainment? So you can't read a book or borrow a free movie or a book on CD from the library? You can't watch programs for free on youtube? You can't surf the internet. You can't teach yourself to do something productive, like knit, while you are listening to the free radio?
Person 1: No, no, I must have cable. I must have my shows.
Person 2: So you can't watch them on the internet on the networks' websites?
Person 1: But they don't air on the same day as they do on TV. I would have to wait a whole 24 hours, or in some cases 8 days. I can't be that far behind on my shows! Everyone else is watching them as they air!
Person 2: So it's not really for entertainment then. Because if it were for entertainment, it wouldn't matter what day you watched it on as long as you had something to watch that day. Is it to keep up with everyone else? Like...the Joneses?
Person 1: Huh?
Person 2: If everyone jumped off a bridge would you?
Person 1: I would if it were on cable TV! And besides, I don't like watching my TV on an itty bitty TV screen. I like watching it on my 60 inch flat screen that I am still paying off.
Person 2: Because you couldn't get a cable to plug your laptop into your TV so you could watch the internet shows on the bigger screen?
Person 1: Why get a cable, when I can just keep cable?
Person 2: Because you can't afford it.
Person 1: But I NEEEEEEED it. You don't understand my situation. I can't give this up, find something else in my budget to help me cut.
Person 2: Fine, what about your grocery budget? $800 a month for one person, that seems like an awful lot, doesn't it?
Person 1: Well, yes, but I have to eat out. I don't know how to cook and anyway fast food is cheaper.
Person 2: No, not really. If you can read a cookbook, you can learn to cook. Or make a sandwich.
Person 1: But it takes so much time! I am too busy. I can't cook. I have 4 programs to watch tonight and I might miss one if I am cooking.
Person 2: Then you are seriously watching too much TV.
Person 1: But it's my only source of entertainment!
Person 2: Well, there is your cell phone bill...
Person 1: No, I just got locked into a two year contract. It was the only way I could get the super fancy phone.
Person 2: I give up.
Person 1: Why won't anyone help meeeeeee? I need to find some place to cut...
And so it goes, on and on. I guess I just don't get it. Is it like an addiction, the TV watching? Is it like giving up alcohol or cigarettes? Or is it like giving up the pretext that you are still part of the middle class you grew up in? Does giving up cable mean you have to face the truth of your situation?
I think maybe cable TV is the last bastion of entitlement. I think people feel like maybe they are still keeping up if they can keep their cable or their meals out. But if the cable goes then they have to face the fact that things are really serious and they can't always have what they want. They can't continue to hide their heads in the sand (of network TV).
The thing is, there is no easy rescue. Even bankruptcy is difficult to get these days and it doesn't always erase all of your debt anymore. When your debts are crushing you, there is only one thing you can do to climb out of the pit. You have to cut down to the bare essentials. You have to give up things you don't want to give up. You have to put your head down and plow through it. You can't have the kind of pride that gets in the way of your ultimate goal of getting out of debt. You have to work your tail off to keep your head above water.
So many people seem unwilling to do these things. It is the rare and much admired person that cuts everything to the bone and pieces together an income that allows her or him to survive and thrive despite enormous obstacles, and to do it with a positive attitude. Too many people say, "I could never do that," when what they really mean is, "I don't want to do that." And that's what makes the difference.
You can say you want to be out of debt all you want, but if what you really want is to keep your life the way it is without making any changes, then you really don't want to be out of debt. You just want the problem to go away. And problems ignored don't just go away. They tend to get bigger. And Bigger. And BIGGER. And then it's not going to be a choice of you cutting your cable so you have money to pay your debts, it's going to be the cable company's decision to cut you off. And the power company's. And the water/sewer. And the garbage collection. And it won't matter then how badly you need to watch your shows or heat your house, or get rid of your waste. It won't be an option.
Isn't it better to decide now, today, to do what you can to get into a situation where that will never happen? Isn't it worth giving up a few luxuries so that maybe one day you won't have to? I think so. I really do. The question is, do you?
No, Not the Cable! Anything but the Cable!
November 21st, 2012 at 01:43 am
November 21st, 2012 at 02:16 am 1353464162
November 21st, 2012 at 02:16 am 1353464204
Another one I always like is "but my roommates have cable." I know that could be a sticky situation for some people. But, I wonder how many people really asked their roommates or just stood up and said "I can't afford that." Lord knows I did when I had roommates - as far as I know they didn't care or take issue with that. It was a "no biggie" situation. But I think to a lot of people it would be horrifying to stand up and say that. It becomes such a herd mentality/cultural kind of thing.
November 21st, 2012 at 03:28 am 1353468530
I want to nominate this as "Post of the Year". Not only spot on, it was hilarious beyond belief. Good job, Lucky Robin.
November 21st, 2012 at 03:59 am 1353470364
November 21st, 2012 at 05:08 am 1353474520
November 21st, 2012 at 10:44 am 1353494698
we are seeing it alot of the boards and blogs here.
People also think that they need to eat out several times a week and have a $100 smartphone bill... and they wonder why they are debt up to their eyeballs and livin paycheck to paycheck.
November 21st, 2012 at 01:40 pm 1353505247
November 21st, 2012 at 02:52 pm 1353509553
That is why I have cable bill expences in my emergency fund calculations. Anything you are not willing to give up, should be on that spreadsheet and covered by the EF.
Also, to put things into perspective, when you have a 3,000 housing payment, $150 for cable won't do that much. It would take over a year and a half of no cable to make one month mortgage+maintenance.
November 21st, 2012 at 04:25 pm 1353515109
We have friends like this. Going into debt by 200 a month but won't give up the iphones or the fancy cable package and wonder why they aren't getting by. I shake my head.
I think some folks don't know how much they can get for free.
Let me just add my sister is the same way. I've tried to get her to cancel it, but she's kind of lazy as far as seeking out free stuff. Plus, weirdly, she doesn't like to read.
November 21st, 2012 at 07:20 pm 1353525607
I think it is a little different if you are not in debt, have a sizable emergency fund, have rainy day funds well funded and are contributing to retirement (at least 15%) Then, cable (a small reasonable package), probably isn't something to fuss over too much. The people LR is talking about are nowhere near that financial level of stability.
High-speed internet I think is different .. somewhat. There are ways where you can use it to make you money, and if you don't live near free Wi-Fi spots or other easy internet access points (like me!) then it can be worth it. Even so though, it is important to make sure you're getting the best deal.
November 21st, 2012 at 07:22 pm 1353525748
November 21st, 2012 at 09:29 pm 1353533372
November 22nd, 2012 at 07:55 pm 1353614129
Great post!
November 28th, 2012 at 07:18 pm 1354130338
November 29th, 2012 at 04:43 pm 1354207427
Person 2: So it's not really for entertainment then. Because if it were for entertainment, it wouldn't matter what day you watched it on as long as you had something to watch that day. Is it to keep up with everyone else? Like...the Joneses?
Person 1: Huh?
Thanks for the great post...some will never learn!